Kyle Larson Fastest in Opening Sprint Cup Series Practice at Atlanta

“We want to get things going and have a little better week than last week”, Elliott said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. “Atlanta is a special place because I’ve raced Bandoleros and Legends cars here on the front straightaway”. George says it will be almost ideal for the Sprint Cup race on Sunday. Jimmy Johnson won this event last March after starting from the 37th position. 013 seconds slower, but receives the pole due to his brother’s infractions.

The Georgia native came home eighth inthe second race of the season and posted his initial top-10 performance in only his seventh career start. The Atlanta track hasn’t been repaved since 1997. He was just under 23 years of age. I’m very comfortable saying all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will challenge for this win, and the driver appearing most capable during my visit to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday was Kyle Busch. I’ll be using the A, A, B, C groupings from the Yahoo Fantasy racing game, to choose which drivers to highlight.

Catching Earnhardt’s win total is but a matter of time, and when it does happen, it is bound to hold great sentimental significance for long-term race fans, given Earnhardt’s colorful, rough-hewn career and his shocking death at Daytona in 2001.

Elliott will start Sunday’s race having qualified 25th in a 39-car field.

With all the new drivers in the C group, picking a driver is the most hard to pick this early in the season.

Carl Edwards has 10/1 odds to win and also has a strong history at Atlanta.

Fast facts: John Force has a record 143 Funny Car victories and 16 season titles. However, Atlanta has never been kind to Mears, who has just 7 Top 20 finishes in 20 Hotlanta starts. Edwards was in the middle of the pack during the first practice but showed plenty of speed with his qualifying run. And Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick racked up top fives with aplomb. The track had two races a year from its opening in 1960 to 2010.

Just how the package does at Las Vegas and other similar tracks will be known soon enough.

While he still supports Earnhardt Jr., Sutton said he’s hoping to see Elliott win. He also spent considerable time learning his racing craft as a youngster driving Bandolero and Legends cars on the track’s frontstretch.

With Front Row Motorsports forming a technical alliance with Roush Fenway Racing, Buescher will have better equipment to work with this year than last.

There are always questions marks whenever a new season begins, and inevitably, there are going to be a few drivers that will improve from last season and some that will regress. Truex Jr. and Hamlin are A drivers and Kenseth is a must pick as a B driver.

“Expectations are high”, said Johnson, who will start at No. 19. Johnson has been stuck on six since 2013, which coincidentally is the time NASCAR modified its championship chase into more a knock-out, playoff-type format. The new aero rules should revitalize him and when his attitude is positive, he’s a pretty good shoe behind the wheel.